Acid on ex-girlfriend, disregard for attempted disfigurement because she was able to wash herself
The judge in Verbania sentenced the defendant to three years because, thanks to the rinsing, the woman had not suffered profound damage
Two bottles of acid poured on the ex, an assault - carried out in his women's hairdressing salon - announced days before. But for the judge of Verbania it was not an attempt to deform or permanently disfigure the face. The liquid used, containing 6.5% hydrochloric acid, was 'unsuitable' to cause 'in concrete terms' the damage, because in the room it was 'possible to immediately rinse the affected skin without waiting the approximately 15 minutes necessary for the crystallisation of the lesion'.
This is what is stated in the grounds of the verdict of 12 November in which the man who assaulted his ex-girlfriend on 28 December last year was sentenced to three years.
Facts
The woman, 'although hit by the liquid on her hair, neck and face, also thanks to the immediate abundant rinsing (...) did not suffer scarring damage or deep damage on the epidermis', wrote the gup Mauro D'Urso. For the judge, this 'leads to a different legal classification' of the fact, placing the incident 'outside the confines' of the crime of attempted deformation of appearance, although 'in nothing is indulged with respect to the seriousness of the criminal conduct'. The defendant, a 64-year-old man, was sentenced in November to three years, the same sentence requested by the public prosecutor but with the re-characterisation of the charges.
The gup had in fact recognised attempted grievous bodily harm instead of attempted deformation of appearance, as well as threats instead of stalking. In the days before the attack, he had sent a series of messages to the woman, including 'those eyes may not see anymore', 'acid burns well', 'so from now on watch your back! And if you go to the carabinieri it's over for you'.
The jurisprudence of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court
On the deformation of a person's appearance by means of permanent injuries to the face, the Constitutional Court intervened last June, saving the ratio of protection, but considering the punitive treatment that is triggered by default to be excessively rigid. The Constitutional Court referred to the need for a 'safety valve' that would allow the judge to moderate the application of very harsh sentences for the new title of offence envisaged by the Red Code, whose descriptive breadth is able to embrace even relatively moderate injuries, sometimes procured in contexts of minor and occasional aggression and without intentional intent, as demonstrated by the variety of charges in the a quibus judgments.
